Project Ruth.

[Anders]

Good to hear Keith! Yup, I was amazed.

[Anders]

Panic! How on earth do I get this arm out from the steering column? The Shop Manual is no help, and the only Picture/Drawing don't show this piece

[Tbird1044]

You need to remove everything from the top (steering wheel end) of the column and then slide the center tube out of the main column. Then the shift lever will come out. Take careful note where the spring and spacer are located.
Start by removing the turn signal switch and all wiring from the column.
Then remove the chrome collar above the shift lever housing. I think there are 3 nuts with blind bolts.
Remove the detent plate.
Remove the shift lever collar. It just slides off now.
Then the entire shift tube can be removed and the shift lever will slip out of the housing.
Nyles

[Anders]

Alright! I though this came out from the bottom, and all the wires are sitting "half tight". Can not really see how I will manage to put them back though. The chrome collar and whatīs inside there is already out. The collar just hangs in wires right now.

[Anders]

This is how it looks from the other side.

[Anders]

Looks like it's stucked because of some burr where the gear lever gets in Any tips on how to sort that out?

[toddgilroy]

Yes, the turn signal wires are a tight fit. I wrapped mine in electrical tape, with the bullet connectors "stacked" end-to-end to keep the assembly as narrow as possible. Still ended up needing to fish it through with some stiff wire.

Maybe there is a better way...

[Anders]

Got it out I just needed to hold the tube with a finger and very gentle tap the housing with a plastic hammer. No force at all Now, if I only found that article I found a few years back when someone restored this piece. i remember it well because the writer looks like was arguing a lot with the founder of this web site Alexander about if the play and problem with our cars was going reverse because of the detent plate or this metal piece on the tube. Anyone who might know this article? My detent plate is changed, but it looks like restoring this also seems to be a good idea.

[Anders]

A close up. Funny, it does works fine, but it sure looks ugly.
Btw; What is the correct word for this tube and part?

[Anders]

-Back from the garage and posting from my iPhone. Just for the record: THANKS Niles and Todd for the tips. It helped a lot

[YellowRose]

Project Ruth.

Anders, while you have that steering column apart like that, if you were not planning on doing so, replace that shift lever. Many people think that in addition to the detent plate wearing, that shift lever sticking out of the bottom of the steering wheel shaft, is a major cause of sloppy shifting and the shift indicator not locking into place. Mine was worn in the notch in that shift ring in particular. You can get them from any of the Tbird parts houses. Here is what mine looked like. You can see the wear in the notch and around the ring.

[Anders]

Good Idea Ray. i will do that! Bugger that I don't find that article though. Spended a few hours on the internet yesterday to find it....

[YellowRose]

Project Ruth.

Anders, everything that Alexander ever posted on this Forum is available to be read. I do not know if this article or post you are talking about was posted on this Forum or not by him. I clicked on the Members List, went to the letter A, found Alexander and clicked on it. Then I looked at 11 pages of threads that he had started and did not find anything about what you are looking for. I did not look at the list of posts that he made though. So I don't know if this was something that he started or something that he replied to.

Regarding that banged up piece at the bottom of the steering shaft... Maybe it got banged up like that when you were trying to get things apart. You should be able to take a vice grip or something like that, and move that back into position again, or perhaps with a rubber hammer or something to smooth it out like the rest of it is. The top part should look like the bottom does, of course..

[Restifier52]

Anders check out the thread called Steering Column Rebuild by TBird 1044. Info regarding the shift collar and sloppy linkage if you should decide to get even more new parts. Best regards, Rick

[Anders]

The dent in the gear lever hole is nothing I did now. The gear lever still fits in, and the part that hangs over just help the play to be tighter I guess. No, this is 55 years of shifting the gear that have taken itīs toll.
I found that your mechanic have changed this on your car as well ( http://www.squarebirds.org/vbulletin...eering+collumn ), and I also found a thread that takes up the argument with Alexander. What I also remember, is that this guy had restored this part and there was all the secuence of that renovation. There was also a link, but the homepage seems to be long gone and is not available anymore. And thatīs sad, because the pictures was good. By some weird reason, I find the link to at least one of the treads that discussed this and the guy on my iPad, but not on my computer.... The thread started with the words " Shift link...." His namn was Nick, and he had a website called www.t-birdbynick.com, but it is closed.